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Monday, May 09, 2011

The Maklediad

An Epic Poem it ain't....
In fact it has the potential to make Venezuela reach yet new lows of ridicule. After all, what can we expect from a story that started in 2003 with some sleazy "businessman" that decided to help chavismo for high profit and who in a couple of years became one of the richest families of Venezuela. From knick-knack store to airlines in 3 years, surely a laundry management book has to be written with such a title. Politics and personal ambitions followed: one of the brothers wanted to be mayor of Valencia and some inner chavista jealousy resulted in a raid at the family farm where a convenient stash of drug was found. Two brothers ended up in jail (trial awaiting?) and the third one, Walid, was on the run until carelessly he fell into the hands of Colombian police as close from the Venezuelan border as possible. So cliche an ending that it brings tears of "pena ajena".

From Bogota Walid sung and sung and yet we only heard melodies, not lyrics. For all the evidences he threatened us with, enough to make the regime fall we were told, he was not willing (able?) to give at least one to show us he meant business. But it still was enough to send all the Venezuelan establishment, from both sides, in a frenzy. Chavismo certainly has reasons to feel guilty but the opposition looks to me that it was played like a fiddle by our chubby bad boy Walid. Commissions and letters were sent to Colombia begging Santos to release Walid to the US because in Venezuela his evidence would be useless. No one demanding that Walid published at least one of his evidences........... Still, it played in the hands of the Makled tribe while, amazingly, distracting away the flames from chavismo as some in the opposition looked, well, too pro US for the chavista hoi poloi.

Do not get me wrong, I am sure that just with what is known already a decent judicial system has enough to build a case against the Makleds. After all, their rise to riches was suspicious from the start; we folks that have to work with Puerto Cabello hade heard plenty of stories of the Makeld dealings there, wondering already how come a "socialist" regime gave so many capitalist advantages to a single group; and the airline grab; and the near monopoly on some of state owned Pequiven chemical trading with suspicious stuff that can be used in drug processing; etc...

Truly, if chavismo wanted to inquire it does not need the blackmailing evidence that Walid claims to have. Just perusing a few recent ledgers should already be enough to put a few people in the slammer.

And so Santos played beautifully, milking Chavez of all what it could in exchange of Walid, including the director of the FARC information office, strangely become a Swede, caught and sent to Bogota unceremoniously as he made a stop by in Caracas, pissing off the Swedes that should have known better. Santos played everyone, chavismo, the idiotic opposition that he did not let visit Makled in jail, Makled himself who I am sure preferred to go to Venezuelan rather than the US where his Noriega fate like was a given. At least in Venezuela he has a chance some day to get out of jail or at least to have his brother released after some adequate bargaining (evidence? Turco and Caicos account? you name it!).

Makled arrived this morning in Venezuela. I can hardly care less for what comes next. After all, if we were a serious country the Pudreval scandal would have been enough to force the resignation of even Chavez; but here all the main culprits of that disaster are still in office, as if nothing, now wasting happily money on housing that will never be built. If Walid really has hard evidence he is going to use in the best way with the thugs in charge in Caracas: money it hard with the regime. Blackmail, is what's for dinner.

If you think that there will be a real trial, I suggest that you do not hold your breath waiting for it, at least not until 2013. Instead expect a guilty plea, a deal, and some general somewhere as a scapegoat for the hundreds of criminals in office that made Venezuela a narco state.

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